Editing Doris Day (section)

===Bankruptcy and television career===
[[File:Doris Day on television show set.JPG|thumb|left|On the set of ''[[The Doris Day Show]]'']]
After her third husband [[Martin Melcher]] died on April 20, 1968, Day was shocked to discover that Melcher and his business partner and advisor Jerome Bernard Rosenthal had squandered her earnings, leaving her deeply in debt.<ref name="Sonneborn2002">{{cite book|last=Sonneborn|first=Liz|title=A to Z of American Women in the Performing Arts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yf2741A_BkYC&pg=PA52|access-date=August 8, 2013|date=2002|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-1-4381-0790-5|page=52}}</ref> Rosenthal had been her attorney since 1949 when he had represented her in her uncontested divorce action against her second husband, saxophonist [[George W. Weidler]]. Day filed suit against Rosenthal in February 1969 and won a successful decision in 1974, but she did not receive compensation until a settlement was reached in 1979.<ref name=metnews>{{cite news|last=Grace|first=Roger M.|title='Uncle Jerry' Faces the Music in Court, in State Bar Proceeding|url=http://www.metnews.com/articles/2007/perspectives100907.htm|access-date=August 8, 2013|newspaper=Metropolitan News-Enterprise}}</ref>

Day also learned to her displeasure that Melcher had committed her to a television series that became ''[[The Doris Day Show]]''.

{{blockquote|text=It was awful. I was really, really not very well when Marty [Melcher] passed away, and the thought of going into TV was overpowering. But he'd signed me up for a series. And then my son Terry [Melcher] took me walking in [[Beverly Hills]] and explained that it wasn't nearly the end of it. I had also been signed up for a bunch of TV specials, all without anyone ever asking me.|author=Doris Day|source=''OK!'' magazine, 1996<ref>{{cite news|title=5 Things You Didn't Know About Doris Day|url=https://www.etonline.com/5-things-you-didnt-know-about-doris-day-from-rejecting-her-americas-virgin-image-to-not-knowing-her#:~:text=She%20actually%20didn%27t,from%201968%2D1973.|accessdate=22 November 2024|publisher=etonline.com}}</ref>}}

Day hated the idea of performing on television but felt obligated to forge ahead with the series.<ref name="TCM2013"/> The first episode of ''The Doris Day Show'' aired on September 24, 1968,<ref>{{cite news|title=Doris Day Heads Own Show|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2406&dat=19680912&id=XwMrAAAAIBAJ&pg=2991,4638121|access-date=January 26, 2016|work=Hawkins County Post|date=September 12, 1968}}</ref> and featured a rerecorded version of "Que Sera, Sera" as its theme song. Day persevered with the show, needing to work to repay her debts, but only after [[CBS]] ceded creative control to her and her son. The show enjoyed a successful five-year run,<ref name="ABCSnares">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1345&dat=19901003&id=mhhXAAAAIBAJ&pg=6790,370864|title=ABC snares Doris Day for TV movies|access-date=January 26, 2016|work=Spokane Chronicle|date=October 3, 1990}}</ref> although it may be best remembered for its abrupt season-to-season changes in casting and premise.{{Sfn|McGee|2005|pp=227–28}}
[[File:Doris Day John Denver 1975.JPG|thumb|Day with [[John Denver]] on the TV special ''Doris Day Today''<br />(CBS, February 19, 1975)<ref name=IMDbToday />]]
After the end of the television show's run in 1973, Day largely retired from acting but completed two television specials, ''The Doris Mary Anne Kappelhoff Special'' (1971)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0356548/|title=The Doris Mary Anne Kappelhoff Special|access-date=April 17, 2019|website=IMDb|date=March 14, 1971}}</ref> and ''Doris Day Today'' (1975),<ref name=IMDbToday>{{cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0313992/|title=Doris Day Today|access-date=April 17, 2019|website=IMDb|date=February 19, 1975}}</ref> and she was a guest on various shows in the 1970s. In 1985 she also recorded new musical material; these recordings were eventually released in 2011 as ''The Love Album.''

In the 1985–86 season, Day hosted her own television talk show, ''Doris Day's Best Friends'', on the [[Christian Broadcasting Network]] (CBN).<ref name="ABCSnares"/><ref>{{cite news|last=Oberman|first=Tracy-Ann|title=Rock and Doris and Elizabeth: a moment that changed Hollywood|url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2012/oct/15/rock-hudson-revealed-aids|work=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=July 4, 2013|date=October 16, 2012|location=London}}</ref> The network canceled the show after 26 episodes despite the worldwide publicity that it had received. One episode featured [[Rock Hudson]], who was showing the first public symptoms of [[HIV/AIDS|AIDS]], including severe weight loss and fatigue. He died from the disease later that year.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20202713,00.html|title=Hudson's Day of Revelation|last=Martin|first=James A.|date=July 11, 1997|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|access-date=December 25, 2012|archive-date=July 2, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120702210612/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20202713,00.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Day later said, "He was very sick. But I just brushed that off and I came out and put my arms around him and said, 'Am I glad to see you'."<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/13/obituaries/doris-day-death.html|title= Wholesome Box-Office Star and Golden Voice of 'Que Sera, Sera|last= Harmetz|first= Aljean|date= May 13, 2019|website= [[The New York Times]]|access-date= June 18, 2019|quote= Ms.Day said, "He was very sick. But I just brushed that off and I came out and put my arms around him and said, 'Am I glad to see you.}}</ref>